Category Archives: Business & Politics

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — The Dawson Creek Fire Department received a call Saturday afternoon for a fire at the Louisiana Pacific mill. Todd Pickett, deputy fire chief, says it started in a pile of bark, otherwise known as hog fuel, though the cause remains unknown. …Crews arrived a little after one o’clock and requested forestry assistance as well as mutual aid from the Fire Departments in Tom’s Lake and Pouce Coupe.“LP brought in a dozer and an excavator, and they kind of moved the pile around all the hotspots in the pile,” Pickett said. When crews left around 6 p.m., Pickett says the fire was “well under control,” and LP personnel had a hose line out to continue extinguishing hot spots.

A lawyer for the Nuchatlaht First Nation, which is fighting for title to part of Nootka Island in British Columbia, has told a court that the underlying objective of the proceeding is reconciliation. Jack Woodward said in his closing argument that the province has placed “the burden of reconciliation squarely on the court,” in the first test of the landmark 2014 Tsilhqot’in Aboriginal title decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. “The province presents the court with a stark choice: dismissal or declaration,” Woodward told the court Tuesday. …The lawsuit… argues that the B.C. and federal governments denied Nuchatlaht rights by authorizing logging and “effectively dispossessing” the nation of territory on Vancouver Island’s west coast. …The closing arguments come about five months after the province announced the development of “a new approach to litigation” as part of its process to implement legislation in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

High Prairie, AB — Tolko’s High Prairie team is continuing to work hard on the clean-up effort following the serious press fire that occurred at the mill on May 20, 2022. The damage to the press and press building was significant, and much of the equipment was a total loss. The good news is that Tolko will be rebuilding the site and replacing the existing press line. The project is still in the preliminary engineering phase, so timelines may shift, but the early estimate is that the mill will see the first new board before the end of Q4 2023. “I’m incredibly proud of the team at High Prairie and I’m happy that we’ve been able to keep everyone fully employed,” says Fred Chinn, Tolko’s VP, Strand Based Business. “We’ll do everything we can to keep employees active during the rebuilding, and I’m so impressed with the heart and commitment that I’ve seen from everyone.”

QUESNEL, British Columbia — Operations at Cariboo Pulp and Paper will be curtailed for 16 days, affecting around 160 employees, beginning Saturday, Oct. 29. Joyce Wagenaar, a corporate spokesperson for West Fraser Mills, said the curtailment is necessary to better align Cariboo Pulp and Paper’s operating capacity with the available supply of wood chips. “Timber supply and access has become an increasing challenge in British Columbia,” Wagenaar said. “Infestation, wildfire, forest policy decisions and other considerations have resulted in fewer logs being processed in Interior sawmills, and therefore fewer wood chips and pulp logs are available as feedstock for B.C. pulp mills.” Cariboo Pulp and Paper is jointly owned between West Fraser and Mercer International. [END]

For over 25 years, the BC Log & Timber Building Industry Association has represented members across the province and elsewhere in Canada. Members include hand crafted, machine profiled and timber framers plus associate members from builders and engineers to insurance and schools. The Executive Director is the key management and administrative position of the BC Log & Timber Building Industry Association. The Executive Director is responsible for overseeing the administration, programs and strategic plan of the organization. Other key duties include fundraising, marketing, member services, financial management and stakeholder liaising (e.g. members, government, other associations, the public). The position reports directly to the Board of Directors and oversees any project contractors. Do you have a passion for log homes, forestry value‐add and/or wood craftsmanship? Come join the BC Log & Timber Builders team and lead us into our future where building with wood is good.

We’ve been detecting a large number of spiked trees coming from Tree Farm Licence 46 on Vancouver Island in recent weeks. We have measures in place to detect these logs and pull them out of milling. On September 19 one spiked log made it through. The spike hit a saw blade, destroying the saw and very nearly hitting our sawyer. He could have been killed. Tree spiking is a dangerous criminal activity meant to maim or kill forestry workers. There can be no justification for that. We’ve also been finding bundles of spikes stashed in the area around blockaders’ camps. The blockaders have … blocked culverts, dug into roads to undermine bridges, sabotaged helicopter landing pads, vandalized equipment, and spread nails on roads. In one troubling instance last year they stopped a vehicle of tree planters on their way to work, held them, and insisted they be allowed to search the tree planters’ vehicle. 

Teal Jones director of Indigenous partnerships and strategic relations, Conrad Browne, said timber taken from trees in the Fairy Creek watershed were hammered with nail spikes resulting in damage to a saw. “It went through our process, and literally almost killed our sawyer. We’re very, very fortunate not to have something very dramatic, and traumatic happen in our mill on Monday morning.” …Browne said they were able to trace the origins of the tree back to a location near a protestors’ camp.”

TAYLOR, B.C. — Canfor says it doesn’t expect to consider restarting its Taylor pulp mill until next spring. Michelle Ward, a spokesperson for Canfor, says, based on ongoing discussions with the company’s transportation partners, the supply chain backlog is not expected to significantly improve before the end of the year. She adds that winter is generally a more challenging time for rail transportation. “We have therefore been preparing to winterize the facility in anticipation that it will likely be next spring before we could consider restarting Taylor Pulp,” she said in an email. This follows Canfor’s statement on Monday that production capacity at most solid wood facilities across the province will be reduced for two weeks, starting September 26th. …The initial Taylor mill curtailment was announced in February 2022, followed by a six-week extension in March.

A B.C. judge has extended an injunction against old-growth logging protesters in the Fairy Creek watershed for another year, but the protesters say his ruling is a “moral victory” for their cause. …Opting to extend the injunction granted to Teal Cedar for another year, Justice Douglas W. Thompson dedicated a significant portion of his reasons to discussing the arguments of the protesters. While his reason for doing so was to emphasize their dedication to their cause – and therefore the likelihood that they will continue attempting to disrupt Teal Cedar’s logging activity – the judge wrote sympathetically about the protesters. “I have come to understand what at first blush seems counterintuitive: the people I have sentenced value and appreciate the importance of obeying the law,” Thompson wrote. …”The purpose of outlining their motives… is to explain why I think it likely that obstructive activity will continue, and why I agree with Teal Cedar’s submission.”

Additional coverage in the Vancouver Sun by Keith Fraser: Judge extends injunction against old-growth logging protests at Fairy Creek

VANCOUVER, BC – The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority today released 2022 mid-year statistics for goods moving through the Port of Vancouver. Overall cargo declined 11% to 68.3 million from 76.4 million metric tonnes (MMT) compared to the same period last year, reflecting impacts of a poor Canadian grain harvest, congestion caused by 2021 flooding in B.C., and global and national supply-chain challenges. …Breakbulk cargo decreased 3% to 9.6 MMT. Log and wood pulp volumes decreased 7% and 8% respectively, while basic metals increased 18% compared to 2020. …Although some near-term supply-chain challenges [continue], Canada’s west coast container trade remains on a long-term growth trajectory, averaging 5% growth annually for the past decade, and west coast terminals are projected to reach capacity by the mid- to late-2020s. To meet Canada’s coming capacity needs for containerized trade, the port authority is leading the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. The project is in the final stages of a federal environmental assessment process.

The BC First Nations Forestry Council (BCFNFC) recently found its newest CEO in Merritt man Lennard Joe, a Registered Professional Forester with more than 30 years of experience in natural resource management and consulting. A member of the Nlaka’pamux First Nation, the council says Joe’s role as an Indigenous professional forester has opened doors in Indigenous governance, provincial and federal governments, industry, academia, and forest certification. The BCFNFC says it is an advocacy organization working to support B.C. First Nations in increasing their role as the rightful owners of forest, lands, and resources. Promoting governance and stewardship of forest resources by First Nations, the council hopes to improve and sustain economic wealth and wellbeing in these communities through Indigenous values and sustainable practices. Joe, who has acted as the organization’s CEO since his appointment on August 15, wants to see First Nations have more of a seat at the table.

POWELL RIVER, BC — A former Powell River paper mill up for sale sits on the site of tiskʷat, the Tla’amin Nation’s ancient village. Now, in a bid to buy back the land, the nation has sent a letter of intent to Paper Excellence, the current owner of the property. …Elected leader of the Tla’amin Nation, Dillon Johnson, feels they are the “only logical” next owners. “We want to balance the priorities of today, which is restoring the salmon run and tidying up some of the environmental issues, but also bringing economic prosperity to the whole region”. …The Tla’amin Nation has established a memorandum of understanding with Pacific Hydrogen Canada for a potential green energy project at the site. …The Catalyst Paper tiskwat mill produced paper for more than 100 years before it was temporarily shut down at the start of the pandemic.